Hey, I've been playing guitar on and off for about 4 years but am trying to get into a more steady groove with it....for some reason though I have the HARDEST time singing along with my strumming/picking....I can sing along to the songs fine, and play along, or do both by themselves, but I always have trouble singing while playing. What happens is as soon as I open my mouth to sing, I end up messing up immediately or I just stop playing.

So my question to some better guitar players....any tips/suggestions to help me have an easier time singing along to my guitar playing?

Thank you very much ahead of time!

P.S. My current song I'm working on singing to is sitting, waiting, wishing (jack johnson)

Practice the chords and such until you can make them all sound perfectly without even thinking about it. Personally, I am at a point where I can make every chord I want instantly, and without looking at the frets. Once you can do this, with proper timing and such, you will be golden, and then you should have no problem singing and playing at the same time. Let me know if you need anymore help.

yeah just practice practice practice, and not only doing chords and singing but I'd try doing something else that requires you to do more then one thing at a time, maybe it's much easier for me because I played drums for 8 years so I'm used to doing at least 2 things such as playing chords and singing, and maybe try tapping your foot while playing, or jsut little things like that, but mainly... keep playing

colinrobinson wrote:Hey, I've been playing guitar on and off for about 4 years but am trying to get into a more steady groove with it....for some reason though I have the HARDEST time singing along with my strumming/picking....I can sing along to the songs fine, and play along, or do both by themselves, but I always have trouble singing while playing. What happens is as soon as I open my mouth to sing, I end up messing up immediately or I just stop playing.

So my question to some better guitar players....any tips/suggestions to help me have an easier time singing along to my guitar playing?

Thank you very much ahead of time!

P.S. My current song I'm working on singing to is sitting, waiting, wishing (jack johnson)

Hey, something else you might want to try is to read a book while playing. if you can do that that means you are not thinking about your hands. once you can get to that point you should be able to sing while playing. although BB King admits after all these years he STILL cant sing and play at the same time. some people just cant do it I guess. good luck to you though.

just keep tryin it manlike last year or the year before i had being playing for lik 8-9 years and never tried singing while playing and i just couldn't. just keep practicing.now i can play liek anyting while singing.just learn a small section, and the words off by heart, and keep tryin it.i found i used to try to worry to much bout the guitar work i was playing, like hitting the right chorsd on teh write lyric etc.just memorize the set of chords or whatever down pat then memorize the lyrics nad the tempo and just mix em together.good luck

also look for tabs that say when to play what chord on a certain word etc. so all u do is switch chord when it says and it also has the full lyrics so u can sing and no when to change its fuckin simple and helps a shitload

heh, thanks for the adivce almost a year later..sorry forgot about this thread...unfortunately i have made almost no progress, i didnt have a lot of time to play guitar while i was living up in long beach the past year...now i am about to start steadily for sure though, bringing my guitar with me to france for the next year

Don't know if your still looking for advice but my two cents is to just improvise. Anything and everything that comes to your head sing it while playing. Even if it sounds like shit it's not like your playing in front of a huge crowd.

I have this same problem. I never concerned myself with it because i dont have a nice singing voice but lately i want my acoustic sublime songs to sound "full"when i play them.
i started singing and ive actually made my voice a bit better but i suggest you try singing along with sublime style skank rhythms.

i'm still not able to sing along to a fast punk song or whatever but the ska rhythms are easy to sing along with because they are slow and steady on every offbeat...so i can sing like badfish, don't push, santeria, greatest-hits, STP, DJs

play whatever song your trying to play, until you can hold a conversation without fuckin it up. That is the way i found easiest to do it. Like everyone else said practice all your chords, and on the little riffs it may be a bit harder to keep the time but just keep going! I remember when I thought i would never be able to play and sing at the same time, but you will see how with time it will come.